It can't be easy to stand out among more than 2,000 breweries, but six from Minnesota managed to do just that by bringing home medals from the annual 2024 World Beer Cup, held this week in Las Vegas as part of the Craft Brewers Conference and BrewExpo America. Here are our world-class beers:

Gold medal

Bent Paddle Brewing Co. in Duluth (1832 W. Michigan St., bentpaddlebrewing.com) took first place in the German-style Altbier category for its Little Düssel Do-Ya. The beer is a local winner, too: It took second place in the German Ale category in this year's Minnesota Brewers Cup, and won that category in 2023.

Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub in Minneapolis (2716 E. 38th St., northboundbrewpub.com) won the German-style Doppelbock or Eisbock category with Doppelbock, which was released in December.

Silver

Lupulin Brewing in Big Lake (570 Humboldt Drive, lupulinbrewing.com) medaled in the Dortmunder/Export or German-Style Oktoberfest category with the limited-release Dortmunder.

Excelsior Brewing Company's (421 3rd St., excelsiorbrew.com) Big Island Citrus Blonde Ale showed in the Fruit Beer category, a fruity play on the brewery's flagship Big Island Blonde Ale.

Bronze

Rounding out Minnesota's medal winners is BeerClub Brewing from Mora (854 Forest Av., beerclubbrewing.com), which also placed in the German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock category with Doppel (doppel) Bock (bock), a customer favorite.

And Pryes Brewing Co. of Minneapolis (1401 West River Road, pryesbrewing.com) took the third-place win in the Mixed-Culture Brett Beer category with Idyll Forest Soirée, part of its Mixed Fermentation program.

About the competition

The World Beer Cup is the world's largest beer competition. This year, there were 110 categories covering 172 different beer styles. Over the course of a week, a panel of 280 judges from 37 countries evaluated 9,300 entries from more than 2,000 breweries across 50 nations.

The competition is hosted by the Brewers Association, a nonprofit trade association dedicated to small and independent American craft brewers.

For a full list of winners, go to worldbeercup.org.